Woosh! The wind felt sharp and cold on my face as I plunged through the clouds. I was flying. I let out a joyful laugh at this realization. I was flying! And I was surprisingly good at it as well. The landscape below me was full of the blur of various greens, reds, yellows, and blues, for that was all I could see at my speed. It was absolutely beautiful. Adrenaline fueled me to keep pushing as I thought, "Faster, faster, faster!" I let out another laugh as I started to perform some aerobatics. A barrel roll! A loop-de-loop! I never felt more free. There was nothing that could bring me down. Nothing that could chain me to the earth. Nothing that would stop me from having this glorious experience.

Though, I felt something was off, like some nagging voice in the back of my mind was shouting at me to wake up. Saying that I would meet some great danger if I did not heed its commands immediately. "Wake up?" I wondered. Surely this couldn't be a dream. It felt too real. Yet, despite its incessant pleas, I continued in my wonderful flight. The voice wouldn't leave me be, though, no matter how hard I tried to ignore it.

Then I noticed something: The sky seemed to be growing darker. And another thing occurred: I seemed to be losing speed, unable to reclaim it despite all my efforts. The sky grew darker and my panic increased. And then, I began falling. I started screaming frantically, desperately trying to regain my flight, completely unaware of what I was falling towards that lurked in that deep, all-consuming darkness. But, for a moment, I caught a glimpse of two piercingly red eyes that shone out like wildfire, striking even greater terror into my heart. I fell faster, increasing in speed, with the wind now rushing fiercely against me, failing to slow my fall. And then, just for a moment, my heart stopped, replacing all my panic with absolute dread and despair, because I felt that I was falling towards something even worse than my potential death, something that would make me beg for death, and that something was whatever owned those red eyes.

I began screaming again, even more frantically than before. Screaming and screaming and screaming and now crying until - *thump* - "OOF!" I landed on something that did not feel like the ground, but instead something much softer than that. Upon further physical observation, for I could see little more than what appeared to be a pale, dim, orange light, I came to the conclusion that my platform was made of something flesh-like, though I could feel no heat coming from it. Then something else began to happen that aroused my panic again: the pale, dim, orange light began to grow brighter and the surface below me began to heat up as well. My heart froze again as I made out the silhouette of what I was lying on: a massive, clawed hand.

I was quickly snapped out out of my fear as the hand heated up to almost scalding temperatures, and then I saw it and I remained as still as I could as my heart nearly burst from my chest: the face, that terrible face brightly and horribly illuminated by the orange light; the face that belonged to those red eyes was directly in front of me. It possessed the head of a goat and had two different horns upon its head, one being that of a deer and the other oddly blue and crooked. It had one long, sharp fang hanging out the side of its mouth that contained a menacing grin full of other sharp teeth. On its chin it bore a white, short and twisting beard and to finish it off, it bore the eyes of a madman, eyes surrounded by a glowing yellow centered by that awful red. It opened its mouth, let out a roaring laugh, and spoke its name to me in a despicably psychotic voice, a name I shall never forget: Discord. This is what broke me. I burst out into sob upon sob and I did not and could not stop. It laughed all the more spying my fear, but it didn't shut its mouth. Deep in its throat, I saw a bright fire start and then begin rushing at me at a great pace. I knew this was my end and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I curled up into a ball hoping to defend myself as best I could, but knowing that this would do nothing to prevent the oncoming blaze. The flames grew ever closer and larger. They belched from its mouth enveloping me as I screamed out in pain and terror-

I woke up with a start, cold sweat drenching my body. I was afraid to open my eyes for fear that the beast was still before me, only laughing all the more at the cruel trick it played on me. I felt the ground, actual ground! Or a stone paved road as it seemed. Then I heard the most welcome voice that I had heard in years, one that was lighthearted, chipper, high-pitched and female: "Are you ok, Mister Whatever-you-are? That was quite a long fall you had there."

Another voice replied to the chipper one, one that was as well female, but firmer and raspier: "He should be, thanks to my awesome rescue. If I hadn't spotted you while I was on my rounds for today's weather, well let's just say you would probably look a lot less intact than you do now." How far did I fall?, I wondered.

Another voice called out, also female, but much more regal and British-sounding: "Well, he could have spared to have those drab clothes ruined." Hey, I am satisfied with the way I dress!, I retorted in my head. Though, I completely forgot what I was wearing.

And yet another female voice called out, this one very southern and scolding the previous one: "Hey, he could have died or gotten seriously hurt. And all you are concerned with is his getup?"

The regal voice answered back, her regret at her former statement obvious in her voice: "Oh, I'm so sorry dear!. I meant no offense. I hope you'll forgive me." I did, though I still was too shocked from my dream or nightmare rather to utter any noise that even resembled forgiveness.

The next voice that came was again female, high-pitched, but very soft and quiet: "What are you?," she said not with fear, but with wonder and interest. I felt something warm touch my face that was not a hand.

The final voice came, once again female, and this one rang out with authority, but calmness as well as I heard what seemed to be a hoof steps quickly approaching me: "Stand back, Everypony! Let me see what's going on here!" Suddenly, the hoof steps stopped, and I could feel warm breath on my face. There was quiet for a long while and whatever it was that had gotten right up in front of me did not move as it seemed to be observing me intently. The voice spoke again, this time to me: "It's ok. You can open your eyes now." That voice was so reassuring that I finally felt I was able to do so without seeing that monster again. I slowly opened them and I was quite surprised to see what was in front of me.

Directly before me and rather close to me stood a purple unicorn with wings and a straight dark purple mane with a magenta highlight. On her face I saw the kindliest expression in the world. To the left of her stood two other horse creatures who were as well different colors: One was pink with massive poofy pink hair who looked more excited than curious. The other was cyan colored pegasus with a sort of ragged rainbow main and tail. She looked more concerned, almost as if she had hoped she hadn't injured me when she caught me. To the right of the purple horse stood three other horse creatures. One was a light yellow pegasus with a long pink mane who stood there rather shyly, almost embarrassed. The next was a light orange horse with a long blonde mane and tail which she tied up in a red hairband at the end and she as well donned a cowboy hat. She looked the most concerned out of all of them. The last one was a white unicorn who had a curled purple mane and appeared the most awestruck. Surrounding them were a multitude of other horse creatures, both male and female differing in size, shape, and color. They all bore curious or frightened looks on their faces or a mixture of both. Each horse creature bore a sort of symbol on their rear-ends and I hadn't the slightest idea why.

The purple horse spoke again in a calming and friendly voice: "My name is Twilight Sparkle. What's yours?"

I was a little wary to answer her, but I eventually replied, "Philip. My name is Philip."

Author's Note

This took me a while to write and I have plenty of plans for this story.